1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a development apparatus for developing the latent image formed on an image bearing member by means of a liquid developer and an image forming apparatus using such a development apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various wet type image forming apparatus adapted to develop a latent image by means of a highly viscous liquid developer formed by dispersing solid toner particles into a liquid solvent have been proposed to date. A developer to be used for such wet type image forming apparatus is prepared by suspending a solid ingredient (toner particles) into an electrically insulating and highly viscous organic solvent (carrier liquid) that is made of silicon oil, mineral oil or edible oil. The toner particles contained in the developer are very fine and show a particle diameter of about 1 μm. Due to the use of such fine toner particles, wet type image forming apparatus can provide high quality images if compared with dry type image forming apparatus that use powdery toner particles having a particle diameter of about 7 μm.
An anilox roller is used to supply such a liquid developer to a development roller. With regard to technologies relating to anilox rollers, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2004-12710) describes a liquid development type electronic photography apparatus comprising a development roller and an anilox roller that are equipped with a temperature regulator for the purpose of supplying a thin layer of a liquid developer having a predetermined thickness from the anilox roller to the development roller. With such an arrangement, it is possible to supply thin layer of a liquid developer having a predetermined thickness to the development roller by constantly keeping the liquid toner temperature to a predetermined level.